Mac dictation app alternative for Windows, Linux, and Android

FluidVoice is a free, GPLv3, local-first dictation app for macOS 15 and later.

Its current speech engines include Nemotron, Parakeet, Cohere Transcribe, Apple Speech, and Whisper. Intel support uses Whisper. Optional Fluid-1 cleanup runs locally; optional external AI providers can also enhance text. Windows, Linux, and Android are not listed as supported platforms.

Bulbul chooses hosted inference so useful voice typing is not tied to a capable Mac or local model setup.

Local models give you offline speech and keep audio on-device. They also put model inference and memory on your machine. Bulbul avoids that speech-model workload on each supported platform: install, add a Groq key, grant permissions, and dictate.

An affordable supported Windows laptop or Android phone uses the same hosted speech route as a Mac. That is not identical latency, battery use, or app behavior on every device; it means your device does not have to run the speech model.

Both are free and open source; choose between hosted cross-platform dictation and local-first Mac dictation.

No. Engines differ, and capable hardware can run local models quickly.

FluidVoice offers Apple Speech and downloadable model choices. Its optional Fluid-1 cleanup is about a 3.5 GB download; that is not a mandatory speech download or a RAM requirement. Bulbul avoids local speech and cleanup model downloads, without pretending every local alternative needs the largest model.

Groq documents a 216x real-time speed factor for Whisper Large v3 Turbo. This is a provider processing metric, not a Bulbul end-to-end benchmark or proof that every local model is slower. Upload time, connection quality, cleanup, service availability, and rate limits still affect when text appears.

Bulbul documents Windows, macOS, and Linux releases plus an Android APK.

Choose Bulbul when Windows, Linux, Android, or avoiding local-model management matters more than offline speech.

Bulbul is free software with no subscription or Bulbul-imposed word cap. Groq has a rate-limited free tier; paid usage is billed to your own provider account. Speech transcription and text cleanup are separate requests, so speech pricing alone is not the whole cost.

Choose FluidVoice if your Mac is your only device and local speech is the priority. Bulbul does not win on app price or offline privacy. Its advantage is hosted dictation beyond Mac.

Bulbul sends audio to Groq; a fully local FluidVoice workflow can keep speech on the Mac.

Audio goes directly to Groq for speech transcription and text goes to Groq for cleanup, using your key. No Bulbul-owned transcription relay sits in between. History, dictionary, snippets, and settings stay in a local SQLite database. The README discloses anonymous usage statistics on by default, with an off-toggle in Settings > Privacy; it says these exclude audio and transcripts.

Bulbul avoids the local speech-model memory and inference workload. It still runs an interface, records audio, and uses the network. No comparative battery or RAM savings have been measured here. Fully local speech is the better fit for offline use or a rule that audio must stay on-device; keep cloud cleanup disabled too.

Groq is not permitted to train or fine-tune models on your API inputs or outputs unless you explicitly grant permission or instruct it to do so.

Section 4.2 of the Groq Services Agreement says: "Groq is not permitted to use Inputs or Outputs for training or fine-tuning any AI Model Services or other models, unless explicitly granted permission or instructed by Customer."

Groq says inference content is not retained by default. Reliability or abuse investigations can temporarily log inputs and outputs for up to 30 days, or longer when legally required. Usage metadata is always retained and does not include customer inputs/outputs.

Groq documentation says all customers can enable Zero Data Retention (ZDR) in Data Controls to prevent content retention for reliability and abuse monitoring. The legal agreement refers to eligible customers. Check your account controls and current terms; Bulbul does not automatically enable ZDR, and this is not a promise that no data of any kind is ever stored.

This gives you a privacy-conscious hosted option without hosting the speech model on your laptop. It does not make cloud speech local: audio is sent to Groq and text is sent for cleanup. If your requirement is that audio never leave the device, a fully local workflow still has an advantage.

The general Groq Privacy Policy covers account, website, and usage information; it explicitly directs API Customer Data to the Services Agreement and DPA. These API-specific terms, not a blanket privacy slogan, support this comparison.

Product facts were checked against official sources on October 9, 2026. Provider performance is not an independent app comparison benchmark.